Over the weekend, the summer-long Manifesta contemporary art festival wrapped up in Genk, Belgium.
The biennale, which is unique in that in changes locations each time it is held, was housed in an Art Deco building at a former coal mining site.
Photographer Nick Vlcek was kind enough to share some photos of from the event with us. Here's what he had to say about the experience:
Manifesta lived up to it’s uncompromisingly experimental reputation by mixing contemporary art into the local cultural heritage with a strong curatorial hand. In certain places it was hard to tell the difference between the two, with the result that it was fulfilling for both international art hipsters and longtime residents of the area.
Quotes describing the photos are Vlcek's own.
"Unique among the world's major art fairs for changing locations, this summer Manifesta found a home in a stunning Art Deco building on a former coal mining site. This location influenced not just the name, In the Deep of the Modern, but the subject matter of the event, where major parts of the show were steeped in the social and political history of coal mining and the communities that supported it."
"Para-Production by Haifeng Ni consisted of several tons of fabric scraps sewn together alongside a set of sewing stations open to visitor use—an attempt on a stunning scale to draw attention to the process of manufacturing rather than the result."
"Part of an installation by Belgian artist Ante Timmermans called Make a Molehill Out of a Mountain (of Work)."
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